Find: Mozilla aims for the emerging world with plans for the $25 smartphone

In Barcelona today, Mozilla announced its Firefox OS plans for the next year. The highlight: plans for a line of smartphones starting at $25 each, bringing HTML5-powered smartphones to billions of people who can't afford more expensive devices.

Central to this plan is a partnership with Chinese fabless semiconductor designer Spreadtrum. The company has designed a trio of chipsets built around the ARM Cortex A5 processor.

While a $25 smartphone might be a step down from the high-powered phones of Samsung and Apple, Mozilla is positioning its new products at an audience that currently only has feature phones. As such, it's not a step down, it's a step up.